


Mistakes and Subtweets

by zorelzuli



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Lena Luthor Finds Out Kara Danvers is Supergirl, Lena is Sad and Angry for Like 20 minutes, This Will NOT be Depressing Because the Finale Set up Enough of That to Come
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-13 05:31:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18934450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zorelzuli/pseuds/zorelzuli
Summary: The caption was different, but Lena recognized the linked photo immediately. Or was her mind playing tricks on her? No, she was sure of it. Kara had just tweeted the exact same picture, which had been quickly deleted from her account.(Lena accidentally discovers Kara is Supergirl through Twitter.)





	Mistakes and Subtweets

**Author's Note:**

> The reveal Sunday was rude, so I wanted to write something a little more lighthearted. That fanart of Facebook asking Lois if she wanted to tag Clark in a picture of Superman sort of inspired this idea.

A quiet _weewho_ chirped through the silence of Lena’s office, the sound causing her to switch her attention from her laptop to her phone. A new notification from Twitter lit up the screen, which was a rare occurrence since she only allowed a select few alerts from the app to come through.

Lena believed social media to be a waste of time, and sometimes infuriating, but any successful CEO knows having an online presence is a must during the current era of the internet. Occasionally she sends out tweets and posts herself, but the majority of the time it’s her assistant, or even a carefully chosen intern, who uses the official L-Corp account. Her own account, however, often goes untouched. That one is only used whenever her favorite reporter sends her the latest cat video or meme the blonde finds funny and thinks the CEO will enjoy.

Lena would never admit it to anyone else, but cats playing keyboards and wearing various fruits as helmets always brought a smile to her face. Kara has a knack of somehow knowing exactly when she feels like ripping her hair out and needs a silly distraction to stay sane.

The most recent video she received two nights ago was of a golden retriever who, despite the dog’s best efforts, couldn’t catch any of the food that its owner would throw. Lena watched the video multiple times in the dimly lit confines of her office, letting out uncharacteristic giggles throughout the entirety of the video. She couldn’t help but be reminded of Kara by the dog’s enthusiastic yet uncoordinated actions. Lena decided next time she saw the blonde she’d test out her theory about Kara not being able to catch food in her mouth no matter how hard she tried.

The bubble on her lock screen was from none other than Kara herself. It wasn’t a direct message; instead, Kara had tweeted something the general public could see. Lena might have turned on notifications from Kara, but she reasoned it was to keep up with the reporter’s articles. She was very invested in her friend’s career, and there was no other reason why she wanted to be informed whenever Kara tweeted. It was completely professional, at least that’s what she continued to tell herself.

**_Kara Danvers Tweeted:            now_ **

_The view from up here is amazing!_

There was a picture attached, so Lena entered her six-digit password to unlock her phone. She tapped on the bubble in the notification center, the brightness of her screen bathing her face in blue light as Twitter loaded its content.

The tweet was at the top of her personal account’s timeline. She followed 52 people, and most of them posted just a handful of times a week. Lena smiled fondly to herself as she recalled a conversation she had with Kara almost three years prior after the CEO had followed her on the social media app.

~ o ~ 

_“Wow, you have 22.7 million followers!” Kara stared down at her phone in amazement, feeling privileged to be the 50th person her new –and apparently quite popular even though many media outlets said otherwise– friend followed. CatCo Worldwide Media was 51st._

_As Kara scrolled through the short list, she found that the CEO didn’t even follow Cat Grant’s personal account. The discovery inflated the blonde’s ego just a bit. After placing her phone in her back pocket, she stood up straighter and ran her hands down her maroon button-up, smoothing out nonexistent wrinkles._

_“Well, I am the CEO of one of the world’s leading companies in technological advancements,” Lena said, unfazed by the awestruck look on Kara’s face. “People are interested in my work even if they think I’ll plan a city-wide massacre one day.”_

_The child-like wonder in Kara’s eyes abruptly vanished. Lena watched, intrigued, as they clouded over, steel and determination now visible in their sky-blue depths._

_“You wouldn’t do that,” the blonde firmly stated, her voice unwavering even though she hardly knew the youngest Luthor. “I know good people when I meet them, Lena, and you’re definitely one of them.” Kara ducked her head and crossed her arms tightly over her chest after the admission. Her eyes were now locked on the floor as a heeled, black boot drew circles in the plush rug beneath the women’s feet._

_A warmness flooded Lena's heart due to the blonde’s sudden change in demeanor. She was almost bashful, and Lena could see the faint hues of pink ghosting across the reporter’s cheeks. Not wanting to embarrass Kara further, she purposefully cleared her throat and decided to change the subject._

_“Aren’t you going to follow me back?”_

_Kara’s head titled up, eyebrows pulling together in her confusion for a few seconds until her features lit up with understanding._

_“Oh, of course!” she said. “I’m sorry. I guess I was just a bit intimidated by your ratio that I completely forgot.”_

_The term caught Lena off guard, one dark eyebrow raising quizzically._

_“My ‘ratio’?” she inquired, not sure what Kara was talking about._

_“You know, the number of your followers over the number of people you follow,” Kara explained. She enjoyed using Twitter and keeping up with its trends, and as a CatCo employee, she had a good excuse to have a very active presence online._

_“People actually care about that?” Lena asked, a hint of disbelief slipping its way into her tone. “That seems so… trivial.”_

_Kara laughed, her face scrunching up in glee, and in that moment, Lena decided she would do whatever she possibly could in the future to hear the sound again._

_“It is,” Kara, now slightly out of breath, said, “but that’s how the majority of the things are on the internet.”_

_Lena had to agree with her, and Kara gave her a blinding, joyous grin. Just as Lena was about to say something else, Kara’s phone began to vibrate incessantly in her pocket. The concerned look on her face after she answered the call didn’t sit well with Lena, and she wanted to ask if everything was alright. Before she could get the words out, however, Kara was already rushing toward the office door._

_“I’m so sorry to leave like this, but my sister needs me!” Kara blurted out over her shoulder, allowing herself one last glance in Lena’s direction. “Maybe we can hang out soon? Outside of work?”_

_Lena was barely able to nod her head in confirmation before Kara was gone. Despite the blonde’s hasty, and quite strange, exit, the CEO couldn’t stop the butterflies she felt creeping into her stomach as she continued to stare at the spot Kara had occupied only moments ago._

_A soft_ weewho _coming from her phone sitting on her desk’s white surface pulled her out of her thoughts. Grabbing the device and flipping it over, Lena felt the butterflies begin to flutter their wings even harder._

**_@ImKaraDanvers followed you back!_ **

~ o ~ 

The smile was still plastered on Lena’s face, but once she tapped Kara’s most recent tweet, it was replaced by a puzzled expression as her lips fell back into their more natural state of a set line.

The picture that accompanied the post was of National City, and it was clearly taken somewhere _extremely_ high up. Lena tapped the photo once so it would fill her entire screen, and that did nothing but create more questions. _Is she on top of a building?_ Stars were faintly visible along the horizon as vibrant city lights shined from below. It was a beautiful image, but Lena was stuck trying to decode where and how Kara captured it in the first place. _What building is that tall?_ The view from her own balcony on the top floor of L-Corp didn’t even look like the view in the picture, and it was one of the highest buildings in the city.

Lena’s phone went dark in the midst of her deliberations, and it prompted her to unlock it again. Once she had, she tapped away the still-open post and navigated her way to Kara’s profile. _Maybe she said where she was going to be tonight?_ It was unlikely, especially since Kara had become a well-known reporter after Lena had first met her. She wouldn’t casually post her location online unless it was some sort of public event she was covering for CatCo. Still, Lena decided to check anyway, even though she could have just as easily sent a text to her friend.

Kara’s top tweet was from 9:42 a.m. _That can’t be right. I just got a notification and it’s…_ –Lena glanced at the clock on top of her screen– _11:19 p.m._ She refreshed the page to no avail. Twitter was saying Kara’s latest tweet was about how excited she was to see Detective Pikachu later in the day with Alex, not something about her view of National City. _Did she delete it? Why would she do that?_ Lena hadn’t seen any grammatical errors, which was the only reason Kara ever deleted her posts.

A blue banner materialized on the bottom of the app, the motion drawing Lena’s eyes down.

**_New Tweet from Supergirl >_ **

Yes, she had notifications on for Supergirl as well, but would deny that fact vehemently if someone was brave enough to ask. The hero was rather funny, and her tweets, though infrequent, were wholesome and never failed to brighten Lena’s day. Tapping the rectangular banner simply out of curiosity, nothing else, Lena’s mouth fell open in shock as her eyes scanned the words on her screen.

**_Supergirl_ **

**_@ItsSupergirl_  
**

_National City at night!! I wish the stars had appeared as bright as they looked to me from up there :/_

The caption was different, but Lena recognized the linked photo immediately. Or was her mind playing tricks on her? No, she was sure of it. Kara had just tweeted the exact same picture, which had been quickly deleted from her account. Lena tried to slow her increasing heart rate as she zoomed in on the photo to verify again that it was in fact the same one Kara had posted previously.

Finding the images to be identical, Lena set her phone face down beside her laptop and leaned back against her padded desk chair. Her mind was racing, and the pieces to a puzzle she didn’t know she had been trying to solve were snapping into place. She wasn’t sure she wanted to face the reality of what this meant.

Letting out a deep sigh, Lena gently pulled out the elastic band that held her hair in a tight ponytail. She sagged further into her seat and rubbed her temples. _How was I so oblivious to what was right in front of me for years?_ The whisper of _betrayal_ danced along the edges of her thoughts, practically taunting her, but she pushed it away. Lena would let her best friend explain, at the very least, _why_ she hadn’t revealed her secret yet. She wasn’t about to discard three years of friendship so easily, but Lena was having a hard time not blaming herself for not realizing the truth sooner. The signs were everywhere, sprinkled throughout every interaction the two women had shared.

_Kara Danvers is Supergirl._

* * *

It was 11:13 p.m. Kara was spread lazily across the couch in her apartment, wrapped in a comforter taken from her bed. The Food Network played on the television, the noise fading into the background as the blonde scrolled through her phone. Alex occupied the small sliver of space beside Kara and was shooting her sister annoyed looks every couple of minutes before she finally spoke up.

“I thought tonight was supposed to be time for sisterly bonding, yet you’re over there, glued to your phone like a teenager,” Alex said, but her tone resembled teasing more than annoyance.

Huffing, Kara pulled the comforter around herself tighter.

“The news never sleeps, Alex!” was all Kara had to say for herself, even though they both knew she wasn’t looking at anything newsworthy.

“So, if I took your phone right now,” she leaned over and reached for the device in question, “I’d see an article about the city's ongoing arsonist investigation?”

Kara swatted Alex’s hand away, the sudden movement causing the comforter to fall limply on her lap.

“Okay fine! I’m watching Bongo Cat perform Africa,” Kara confessed, hugging her phone close to her chest and away from her sister.

Alex just stared.

“Am I supposed to know what that means?”

“Even Lena knows about Bongo Cat, get with the times, grandma,” Kara responded, trying to keep her amusement hidden.

“Well excuse me for not knowing what a dongle cat is,” Alex grumbled quietly to herself as she yanked part of Kara’s comforter over her legs.

“It’s Bongo Cat, Alex, not dongle.”

Alex rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t stop the small smile that creeped onto her face. She wondered what the citizens of National City would think if they knew their hero was spending her Friday night curled up on her couch like an oversized burrito while watching strange cat videos online. Not that there was anything wrong with how Kara spent her down time, but Alex knew most people had much different ideas in mind about what Supergirl did when she wasn’t out protecting the city.

“Look at this photo I took! I think James would be proud.”

Kara’s phone was much closer to Alex’s face than it needed to be, but she could still clearly make out the details in the picture. She believed James would approve of the image as well, and Kara did seem to be getting better at photography. It was something the reporter wanted to try now that her writing skills were more finely tuned than they were when she first started covering stories for CatCo. Analyzing the photo further, Alex thought it looked like the view a drone would have of National City. She quickly discerned Kara had taken it while she was out patrolling as Supergirl.

“It’s an awesome shot–”

“–I’m going to post it on Twitter!” Kara exclaimed as she began typing on her phone.

“Just make sure you put it on the Supergirl–”

“–What about Supergirl?”

**_Ding!_ **

Alex’s phone chimed. She eyed the device warily. A Twitter notification from **_Kara Danvers_ **on her lock screen confirmed her suspicions.

“Kara, please tell me you didn’t tweet that to your personal account.”

“…There’s a chance I tweeted that to my personal account,” the blonde replied sheepishly.

“You have to get rid of it! Someone might recognize there’s _no way_ as a human you could’ve taken that yourself.”

Frowning, Kara unlocked her phone, tapping at it faster than Alex’s eyes could follow.

“There, I deleted it. It only had three likes and one retweet anyway.”

**_Ding!_ **

Alex slapped her free hand to her forehead when she saw a new tweet from **_Supergirl_** pop up on her phone.

“If I open Supergirl’s Twitter account and see the exact same photo you just tweeted to Kara Danvers’ account, I’m going to lose it.”

“No one will notice!” Kara groaned out. “Come on Alex, let me keep it up.”

“You’re risking your identity!” Alex wasn’t shouting, but her voice was noticeably louder than before. “You have thousands of followers now that you’re a reporter for CatCo, I’m sure some of them overlap with Supergirl’s.”

Kara dropped her head against her chest in defeat. She knew Alex was right, but she really liked the picture she took. Even if she wanted to showcase how her photography was improving, she didn’t want random people finding out Supergirl’s alter ego. Opening Twitter once more, Kara deleted the post, which already had hundreds of likes, comments and retweets, from Supergirl’s account.

“It’s gone,” Kara said, a dejected sigh escaping her lips. “No one could’ve figured anything out that fast anyway.”

**Author's Note:**

> I am NOT looking forward to this hiatus, but hopefully I'll get back into the groove of writing again. Thanks for reading!


End file.
